Men’s Soccer Suffers First Defeat of Season Against Rio Hondo

TORRANCE, Calif. - The newly minted No. 1 team in the state and previously undefeated El Camino College men's soccer team suffered a 4-1 defeat at home against Rio College on the ECC Soccer Field on Friday afternoon.

The game was scoreless in the first half between the Warriors (10-1, 1-1 SCC) and the Roadrunners (8-1-2, 2-0 SCC).  However, there were four yellow cards issued in the first half with three of them going to the Warriors.  The overall game was marred by fouls with the foul count in the first half at 10 fouls by Rio Hondo and 6 by El Camino.  The foul count at the end of the game would be even more absurd with a 50% difference with it being 24 fouls committed by Rio Hondo and 12 by the Warriors.  However,  only one more yellow card was issued by the ref in the second half to a Roadrunner player.

The Roadrunners struck first on a free kick goal by Maximilian De Anda in the 48th minute.

With the Warriors pressing numbers forward looking for an equalizer, the Roadrunners counterattacked the rest of the game.  

Rio Hondo scored their second goal in the 53rd minute and their third in the 58th minute.

The Warriors got one goal back in the 62nd minute after a corner kick.  Justin Ortega took the corner and was able to find Eli Ristovski for the lone Warriors goal.

Rio Hondo killed off the game in the 85th minute after Sebastian Sandoval scored on a give-and-go combination with Juan Rodriguez to make it 4-1. 

It doesn't get any easier for the Warriors as they play their first conference road game at Mt. Sac on Tuesday, October 12th.  Kick-off is set for 5:00 PM.  The last time they played Mt. Sac, the Mounties ended the Warriors season in the CCCAA Socal Regionals semi-final on November 30th, 2019.